1969 Movie

It was an era of turmoil. The United States was escalating its presence in Vietnam. Social protest in the country's streets and universities was at a high. The music was psychedelic. The touted film was "Easy Rider." It was a time of reflection--and a time of action. Movies have largely steered away from the hot issues of the late '60s, preferring the cooler climate of postwar, pre-Kennedy assassination America.

Robert Culp, the veteran actor best known for starring with Bill Cosby in the classic 1960s espionage-adventure series "I Spy" and for playing Bob in the 1969 movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday morning. He was 79. Culp fell and hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood Hills home. He was found by a jogger who called 911 and was pronounced dead at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Lt. Bob Binder of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Some of Britain's brightest minds have resolved one of the country's biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have gotten away with the gold at the end of 1969's "The Italian Job." The film ends with the robbers' gold-laden bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot -- and their lives -- in doubt. Recently, the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament.

Some of Britain's brightest minds have resolved one of the country's biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have gotten away with the gold at the end of 1969's "The Italian Job." The film ends with the robbers' gold-laden bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot -- and their lives -- in doubt. Recently, the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament.

Robert Culp, the veteran actor best known for starring with Bill Cosby in the classic 1960s espionage-adventure series "I Spy" and for playing Bob in the 1969 movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday morning. He was 79. Culp fell and hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood Hills home. He was found by a jogger who called 911 and was pronounced dead at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Lt. Bob Binder of the Los Angeles Police Department.

A reputed 1909 double murder and suicide in Southern California led to the "last great manhunt" of the Old West, spawning national headlines; trumping up rumors of a presidential assassination plot and of an Indian uprising; and leaving a notorious legacy in books, a movie and finally a bitter academic fight that landed three authors in court.

In high school, "Wall-E" director Andrew Stanton played the shy Yonkers store clerk Barnaby in the Jerry Herman musical "Hello, Dolly!" Decades later, two of the show's lesser-known songs would play a pivotal part in the critically acclaimed Disney/Pixar animated hit. Though "Wall-E" does feature a new song, "Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman over the end credits, the two tunes that factor in both the film's themes and plot --...

A well-known Los Angeles law firm is changing its name to Wyman, Bautzer, Christensen, Kuchel & Silbert following the appointment of Terry Christensen as a name partner. He is the first partner in more than 30 years to be promoted from within to that post. In his practice, Christensen, who joined the firm in 1969, represents movie studios, a TV network, sports teams, financial institutions and various individuals in business and entertainment.

Robert Vincent Wright, 88, a longtime television writer whose credits included "Maverick," "Bonanza" and "Lost in Space," died of acute bronchitis and pneumonia June 17 at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. In 1958, Wright was nearly 40 years old and the supervisor of motion pictures in the engineering division of what was then known as the Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle when he wrote his first TV script, an episode of "Maverick."

Colorado's historic Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which plies a scenic route up to 9,000 feet in the Rockies' San Juan Range, has opened a museum at its 1881-vintage depot in Durango, giving visitors a trip to the past even if they don't ride the train.

It was an era of turmoil. The United States was escalating its presence in Vietnam. Social protest in the country's streets and universities was at a high. The music was psychedelic. The touted film was "Easy Rider." It was a time of reflection--and a time of action. Movies have largely steered away from the hot issues of the late '60s, preferring the cooler climate of postwar, pre-Kennedy assassination America.

Robert Crichton, author of the bestsellers "The Great Impostor" and "The Secret of Santa Vittoria," both of which were made into films, has died. He was 68. The cause of death was heart failure, his family said. He died Tuesday at a nursing home. "The Great Impostor," written in 1959, was the true story of Ferdinand W. Demara Jr., a man who posed as a priest, a prison warden and a doctor. The 1961 movie version starred Tony Curtis.

Carrie Snodgress, the actress who was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her performance in 1970's "Diary of a Mad Housewife," has died of heart failure. She was 57. Snodgress was hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center awaiting a liver transplant when she died of heart failure on April 1, her manager, Sidney Craig, told the Associated Press on Friday. Her son, Zeke, by rock star Neil Young was at her side, he said. A native of Barrington, Ill.